RAP Regional Forum 2022 - Economic prosperity

This document records the outcomes of the Rainforest Aboriginal Peoples (RAP) Regional Forum 2022 – Economic Prosperity Workshop, held in Cairns as part of the continuing regional forum process. The workshop focuses on the economic dimensions of Rainforest Aboriginal Peoples’ aspirations, particularly the ways cultural knowledge, governance, and Country-based responsibilities underpin sustainable economic development across the Wet Tropics biocultural region.The document emphasises that economic prosperity for Rainforest Aboriginal Peoples is inseparable from cultural and environmental governance. Participants consistently link employment, enterprise development, and tourism opportunities to long-standing responsibilities for caring for Country, maintaining cultural heritage, and exercising cultural authority. Activities such as Indigenous Protected Areas, Ranger programs, and cultural land and sea management services are identified as both economic pathways and mechanisms for sustaining and applying local cultural knowledge.A central theme is capacity. The document highlights persistent challenges relating to infrastructure, resourcing, governance capability, and access to capital, all of which constrain Rainforest Aboriginal Peoples’ ability to realise economic opportunities. In response, the workshop stresses the importance of collating, documenting, and mobilising cultural information to support planning, business development, and partnerships. Cultural knowledge referenced in the document spans governance arrangements, environmental management practices, community development priorities, education, and enterprise strategies. Sources include regional agreements, strategic direction statements, discussion papers, and native title outcomes.The document also signals the importance of structured and culturally legitimate governance mechanisms for verifying, authorising, and protecting cultural knowledge. Instruments such as Indigenous Land Use Agreements, native title processes, and Traditional Custodian decision-making structures are identified as critical to ensuring authenticity, consent, and accountability in economic and tourism activities.Tourism features prominently as a sector offering both opportunity and risk. The workshop identifies existing and emerging Indigenous tourism and education initiatives and frames them as pathways for cultural transmission, employment, and regional economic participation. However, it emphasises that Rainforest Aboriginal Peoples’ involvement must be based on co-design, cultural control, and respectful partnerships with industry and government.Overall, the document contributes to an emerging Indigenous tourism and economic development typology by outlining interconnected categories of activity, including cultural heritage tourism, environmental management services, education and interpretation, community-based enterprises, and regional governance functions. It captures a moment where Rainforest Aboriginal Peoples collectively articulate how local cultural knowledge, when properly governed and supported, forms the foundation for long-term economic prosperity.